installing headers

I have a 2001 Chevy Silverado 1500 LS 4x4 Z71 with the 5.3Lmotor. I was throwing around the idea of putting a true dual exhaust on it formultiple reasons. Fuel economy, hp, torque, and it just don’t sound loud enoughfor me. I want to replace the exhaust manifolds and put on some high flowheaders. I would like to know if it is worth spending the money to get the longheaders instead of the shortys, and how much of a pain it would be to installthem. Also I would like to know what the best way to set up trueduel exhaust. I’ve seen multiple different setups but don’t know what is thebest way to set them up.

From what I have read long tube headers will give you more power and better flow at low rpms, while shorty headers will give you more power and flow at high rpms. If you do long tube then you will need to have your exhaust redone to bolt up to it. Most the short tubes I have installed bolt right to the old stock exhaust with no issues.

You know that's bad for your truck right? And you lose quite a bit of horsepower. Your engine relies on the "H" pipe on your truck to equal out the head pressure from what side to the other. You will lose fuel economy, horsepower and your truck will sound god awful. All the really nice sounding trucks and hot rods all have "H" pipes.

My exhaust setup suggestion would be the same as mine, long tube headers, and then cutting the muffler off and doing duals from there out the back. Your factory cats are already high flow so don't waste your money on doing anything from the cats to the factory muffler. Leaving the "H" pipe in will help you. The "H" pipe is the pipe from your y-pipe splitter to your factory muffler.

My personal setup has no muffler, just headers and duals where the muffler once was. I have more power, better fuel efficiency and it sounds so good even die hard Toyota, ford and dodge guys give my truck a thumbs up.

I have American racing headers with their highflow cats in combination with a Corsa high performance sport exhaust. It sounds awesome... There isn't a truck in my area that has that same tone. You know you have something when all the guys at the local auto shops stop and turn their heads when you go by.... When you order headers you'll have two choices for pipe and collector sizes. The larger pipe will give you a lower tone... The.smaller pipe will give you more bark. I went with the larger... 1 7/8 headers on my truck. The headers and exhaust combination will really wake up.your truck... But you'll need to re-program your ecm and tcm to take full.advantage though.